Lockheed Martin Accelerates the Development of Orion Spacecraft

Next three missions to the Moon are vital to NASA’s Artemis and Moon Base efforts.

NASA’s Artemis II mission pushed the boundaries of human exploration, proving Orion’s ability to carry astronauts farther from Earth than any human-rated spacecraft has traveled before. Following NASA’s announced updates to accelerate Artemis, Lockheed Martin is working to deliver the Orion spacecraft for Artemis III, IV and V faster than before.

For Lockheed Martin, the call to accelerate is more than a schedule adjustment. It is a commitment to help enable a sustained human presence on the Moon. In response to NASA’s updated Artemis architecture and its Ignition initiatives, Lockheed Martin is refining how its teams build, test, certify and deliver Orion spacecraft.

Three Orion spacecraft were already in assembly and test when NASA announced its accelerated direction. Lockheed Martin’s teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Michoud Assembly Facility and across the Orion supply chain immediately began looking for responsible ways to move faster by removing barriers, increasing capacity and applying the lessons learned from prior vehicles, while continuing to meet important safely, quality and certification requirements.

Moving from a development mindset to a production mindset means repeatability, building on lessons learned from vehicle to vehicle and reusing spacecraft hardware where possible.  To do this, the Orion team is improving the flow of work, preparing hardware resources ahead of need on the assembly floor and streamlining tests where earlier qualification testing has already verified a design.

“Once a design is qualified, acceptance testing can focus on verifying that each unit was built correctly,” said Tim Norick, Lockheed Martin Orion program hardware director. “We’re using experience from previous flights to reduce testing time and scope while preserving the must-do tests and evidence needed to confirm flight readiness and protect crew safety.”

The program is also preserving specialized skills and lessons learned by moving directly from one vehicle build to the next, rather than allowing long gaps in production.

Where appropriate, the team is refurbishing qualified hardware from earlier Artemis missions and using it to protect the schedule for upcoming flights. Reuse of Orion systems is key to the cost savings seen in the production contract, and expanding reuse on successive missions further reduces costs and production time.

Credit: NASA

Lockheed Martin is expanding the Orion assembly workforce at Kennedy, adding more than 100 positions across hands-on and support roles. The team is working around the clock — three shifts a day, seven days a week — and the added capacity will bolster the teams supporting critical spacecraft operations day and night.

“Acceleration comes down to three things: putting more resources against the work, doing the work more efficiently, and reducing unnecessary scope and avoidable rework,” said Scott Daniels, Lockheed Martin’s Orion Assembly, Integration and Test director at Kennedy. “As Orion moves into a production-focused model, we are applying lessons learned and preparing the work in greater detail so the teams can keep the assembly floor moving without preventable roadblocks.”

The program is also making faster decisions when challenges arise. A rapid response team brings experienced engineers and other specialists to urgent technical issues so core teams can stay focused on planned integration, certification and delivery work.

“The rapid response team gives us a deeper bench of subject matter experts who can move quickly to a priority issue, while the core team stays focused on the plan that keeps the overall program moving,” said Brian Hinde, Lockheed Martin Orion Production Engineering senior manager. “We’re embedding authority within various levels so the right people can react quickly when a problem arises, rather than losing time in a long chain of decisions.”

Acceleration extends well beyond the factory floor. The team is working with suppliers to expand production capacity by providing targeted incentives and supporting investments in additional tooling and equipment to accelerate delivery of critical components and reduce assembly delays. The company is also evaluating alternative sources for selected hardware and expanding internal production where needed.

At the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana, for example, investments in the production of Avcoat heat shield material increased output from about four billets per week to more than 20. Expanding the facility and additional equipment have dramatically increased the heat shield production capacity for Artemis III, IV, V and future Orion spacecraft.

Technicians analyze the heat shield tiles for the Orion Artemis IV spacecraft. 

Launching next year, the Orion spacecraft for Artemis III is nearing completion, and Artemis IV and V are already deep in production. Beyond a single mission, the company is helping establish the industrial capacity, workforce and production approach needed for a more regular cadence of lunar exploration.

The next three Orion missions will help advance Artemis, support the development of a Moon Base and move America toward the long-term goal of sending humans to Mars.